Just one day before free agent frenzy and it is no secret that teams are still trying to shed salary in order to make room for free agency needs. It has been tough to find a trading partner because of the salary cap dropping down. That being said, we have our first major trade.

Tyler Seguin was traded to the Dallas Stars on the 4th of July (Photo courtesy of Christopher Evans/Boston Herald)

The Boston Bruins and Dallas Stars made the biggest news before free agent frenzy by have a 7-player mega deal. Young star Tyler Seguin was sent to Dallas with Rich Peverly and prospect Ryan Button for lethal goal scorer Loui Ericksson and prospects Joe Morrow, Matt Fraser, and Reilly Smith.

Twenty-one year-old Seguin has the potential to be a franchise first line center, but his party boy attitude and work ethic off the ice seemed to be his downfall. In an interview at the draft, Boston GM Peter Chereli went as far to say, “Tyler needs to act more like a professional”.

Rich Peverly is a shut down center. Ryan Button split time between the AHL and ECHL last season.

Loui Ericksson is the center piece coming back to Boston. He is an extremely underrated sniper who will look great on the right wing in Boston. Also Joe Morrow adds to an already young group of promising defensemen in Boston (Dougie Hamilton, Torry Krug, and Matt Bartowski already being in Boston). Interesting to see Dallas move him after acquiring him from Pittsburg at the trade deadline for Brenden Morrow (no relation). In the NHL, Reilly Smith played 37 games this year and had 9 points and Matt Fraser played 12 games and had 3 points. At 21 and 23 respectively, they could have some upside.

In other news around the league, Vinny Lecavalier has decided to sign with the Philadelphia Flyers with a 5 year 4.5million per year contract. Lecavalier’s buy out in Tampa set a record for the largest buyout in NHL history. Also staying in Philadelphia, the Flyers are interested in signing goalie Ray Emery. Earlier in the week it was rumored that Emery was close to resigning in Chicago, but now it sounds like the Flyer’s are looking for another goalie to go through their revolving door of goaltenders (21 goaltenders since 96-97 season according to NHL Tonight on NHL Network).

Nathan Horton is looking for a nontraditional hockey market for his next team. He visited the Columbus Blue Jackets the other day.

The compliance buyouts have been making free agency a little more interesting. Daniel Briere, Mikhail Grabovski, Carlo Colaiacovo, and Ilya Bryzgalov have been bought out and are now free agents with Nathan Horton, Valtteri Filppula, David Clarkson and Andrew Ferrance.

One last thing for Hawks fans. Nick Leddy’s new contract has value of this morning. He will be making 2.7 million per year for the next 2 years. That maybe a little much right now for Leddy, but let’s look at is as a promising investment. Let it be known that I am a huge Leddy supporter and don’t understand the hate he gets on message boards and from fans at the games. First, everyone should know that a defensemen’s development takes longer than a forwards. Their game matures at an older age. Leddy is 22 years old and has flashes of brilliance when it comes to leading the rush. His defensive game needs a little bit of work, but from a developmental standpoint, he is miles ahead of where Norris winning defensemen Duncan Keith was at his age. When this contract ends, he will be 24 years old and he will have a better idea of where is development is going.